Whats the best way to destroy out of date or cancelled passports.The covers are quite thick,so I thought of taking the covers off and shredding the insides.I rang the passport office for advice ,but they didnt seem bothered,and said "Dont worry about it"but didnt give me any advice.I know no one can use them for travelling ,but they are quite personal documents.:suspect:

burn it:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

When I sent off for a new passport about 6 years ago, they just sent back the old one with the new one, but cut a section off the back cover.

Why do you need to destroy it?

Originally posted by Yodameister
When I sent off for a new passport about 6 years ago, they just sent back the old one with the new one, but cut a section off the back cover.

Acutally I've just had a look at it, they cut a corner out of the whole thing.

I'm very surprised the passport office didn't seem bothered about it. What with identity theft being one of the fastest growing crimes and all. I'd be tempted to enquire again and get an official response. Corner missing or not, there's more than enough info in an expired passport for it to easily become a fraudulent one.

Originally posted by Yodameister
Acutally I've just had a look at it, they cut a corner out of the whole thing. Yes, thats what theve done with mine.But do I keep it or destroy it ?:suspect:

Originally posted by pattricia
Yes, thats what theve done with mine.But do I keep it or destroy it ?:suspect:

Well I've kept mine.

I should imagine that destroying a valid passport is an offence, and thats why you have to send them your old one. Presumably once the Passport Office have "defaced" it themselves its up to you what you do with it.

Originally posted by hotphil
I'm very surprised the passport office didn't seem bothered about it. What with identity theft being one of the fastest growing crimes and all. I'd be tempted to enquire again and get an official response. Corner missing or not, there's more than enough info in an expired passport for it to easily become a fraudulent one. I feel exactly the same.Thank you.I know its not now valid,but theres still a lot of information on it.:thumbsup:

I have kept my old one too. The only danger is if you are just about to go away and you pick up an old passport by mistake which is out of date.

If I had an old passport with visa stamps on it I would definitely want to keep it however.

I don't understand why anybody would want to destroy their old passport. It's not as if you are going to finish up with a cupboard full of them as they last 10 years each. If I am still wanting to travel into my 70s I will only finish up with 6.

If you want to dispose of it then either burn it or invest in a shredder, if you don't want to destroy it put it in the back of a drawer and forget about it.

Or you could just rip out and destroy any of the pages that you think might hold sensetive information.

But a passport has no more sensetive information to the casual observer than a bank statement does.

chop it up, if its too thick try and get it into pages
i chop up all the bills etc we throw away, identity theft is a really nasty crime to get caught up in, not just cash wise, but you could get into trouble for crimes/terrorism who knows.

as long as you cut up things like numbers, and address's etc

Originally posted by hotphil
I'm very surprised the passport office didn't seem bothered about it. What with identity theft being one of the fastest growing crimes and all. I'd be tempted to enquire again and get an official response. Corner missing or not, there's more than enough info in an expired passport for it to easily become a fraudulent one.

why?

what is the difference between that an say an old credit card or bank statement?

they could across all the pages so none of them can be re-used.

they give them YOU back.

what is the difference between that an say an old credit card or bank statement?
a) a photo
b) a next of kin address (which in many cases would be a previous address of the passport holder)
c) a full name
d) citizenship
e) date of birth
f) place of birth
g) (probably most important) a signature!!!

You'll not find any of that on a bank statement. And it's all valuable information that could be fraudulently used.
I know that the holder gets the expired passport back, but any identity thief going through someone's blue bin would think Christmas had come early if he found an expired passport.

but you have it. so if you are daft and lose it then surely you only have yourself to blame?

your passport si the property of the crown but when cancelled it becomes your property and responsibillity

I'd be much happier (bearing in mind the disgraceful fee charged for a passport), if expired ones were securely destroyed by the issuing authority.

I don't know what you mean about being daft and losing it. I think we're talking about disposing of an old one - not losing it. Although if one fell in to the wrong hands by accident or carelessness the results could be the same. To most people, losing an expired document is probably not a concern. What should be a concern is that disposing of an unusable document is potentially risky. Surely most people just want to dispose of old ones? I can see no reason why someone would want it back.
The fact is that an expired passport in the wrong hands is more than enough information for a fraudulent identity to be created. That the issuing authorities, in this age, expose people to that risk is nonsensical.
I'm savvy enough to know that I should properly destroy it before disposing of it, but I'll bet a great many people aren't.